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Colorado attorney general candidates clash over credentials in debate

Debate in Grand Junction also featured candidates for secretary of state, treasurer

Posted
Tuesday, September 11, 2018 12:53 pm

Brauchler

Weiser

Associated Press

GRAND JUNCTION — Colorado's major party candidates for attorney general engaged in their first debate over their respective credentials in their race to succeed Republican Cynthia Coffman.

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports that Republican George Brauchler and Democrat Phil Weiser challenged each other's experience during the Sept. 8 debate sponsored by Club 20, an association of counties in western Colorado.

Brauchler is the 18th Judicial District attorney widely known for prosecuting Aurora theater shooter James Holmes. Weiser is a former University of Colorado law school dean who served as a deputy attorney general under President Barack Obama. He also clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Ruth Bader Ginsburg and served in the Justice Department under President Bill Clinton.

“My career has been one of service, starting in the Supreme Court, working in the Justice Department under two presidents,'' Weiser said.

“The attorney general is the protector of Colorado ... and I have spent my entire life as a defender, a protector,'' Brauchler countered. “A defense attorney, a prosecutor, I've been a civil plaintiffs lawyer, a civil defense lawyer, I've been a military prosecutor and a military defense lawyer. I have tried cases at every single level, municipal, state, federal and military.''

Coffman, who was elected in 2014, mounted an unsuccessful bid for her party's gubernatorial nomination this year.

Candidates for state treasurer and secretary of state as well as Colorado's expansive 3rd Congressional District also debated in Grand Junction.

Brian Watson, CEO of an investment firm and the Republican treasurer candidate, questioned whether Democratic state Rep. Dave Young had the business experience needed for the position.

“The role of the treasurer of Colorado is different than the founder and CEO of a company,'' Watson said. “You have to understand that what goes up comes down, and somebody like you who has never invested your own capital alongside other people to try to make return, you may not understand the risk and reward.''

Young cited his work as a member of the legislature's powerful Joint Budget Committee.

“I have an actual fiduciary responsibility to the state, like the treasurer's office, so I actually have that experience,'' he said.

Democrat Jena Griswold, an attorney seeking to unseat Republican Secretary of State Wayne Williams, declared that the office should do a better job of helping businesses register.

“Excellent suggestion,'' Williams responded. “We just did it.''

Williams and the office of Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper created a website this year to guide entrepreneurs through each step of the business registration process.